Those who viewed the underrated Memoirs of an Invisible Man as a comedy without any laughs, and subsequently trashed it, got it all wrong. Despite the presence of funnyman Chevy Chase and a mis-categorization at the video store, this isn't a comedy at all; the involvement of director John Carpenter should have been a firm tip-off that it was meant as an effects thriller about the weird or unknown. On that score, it's a tight little package that touches on most of the fascinating issues about invisibility, notably the central conundrum that theoretically unlimited freedom is an empty proposition when it requires loneliness and loss of identity. Most invisibility movies are just a pretext for special effects wizards to visualize what things look like when handled, worn, or knocked over by a person who can't be seen, and Memoirs of an Invisible Man doesn't always delve deeper than this surface gimmick. But the script, by William Goldman, Robert Collector, and Dana Olsen, exists as a generally intelligent chase story that never stretches suspension of disbelief beyond the basic premise. Chase's gumshoe narration typifies his sober approach to the material, and in a way, it's regrettable that his attempts received such a critical slap in the face because he hasn't since ventured beyond pratfalls and one-liners. It's no classic, but Memoirs of an Invisible Man has ten times the intellect and soul of Paul Verhoeven's big-budget slasher approach to the same topic, the maddening dud Hollow Man (2000).